With the aging of the population worldwide, humanoid robots are being used with an older population, e.g., stroke patients and people with dementia. There is a growing body of knowledge on how people interact with robots, but limited information on the difference between young and old adults in their preferences when interacting with humanoid robots and what factors influence these preferences.We developed a gamified robotic platform of a cognitive-motor task.We conducted two experiments with the following aims: to test how age, location of touch interaction (touching the robot’s tablet or hand), and embodied presence of a humanoid robot affect the motivation of different age-group users to continue performing a cognitive-motor task. A total of 60 participants (30 old adults and 30 young adults) took part in two experiments with the humanoid Pepper robot (Softbank robotics). Both old and young adults reported they enjoyed the interaction with the robot as they found it engaging and fun, and preferred the embodied robot over the non-embodied computer screen. This study highlights that in order for the experience of the user to be positive a personalization of the interaction according to the age, the needs of the user, the characteristics, and the pace of the task is needed.
Summary
Objective: To analyze the nature and appropriate role of the Medical Informatics research and practice area in the 21st Century, and to determine its links to academic environments versus industrial companies and health-care organizations.
Methods: A qualitative analysis of the state of the art of Medical Informatics, based on observation of current medical informatics programs and research in academic and industrial sites.
Results and Conclusions: Medical Informatics is definitely a scientific and technological area of endeavor, although somewhat ill-defined in scope. It is situated between science and engineering, but much closer to the engineering world, and its multidisciplinary nature fits well the engineering paradigm. It is better viewed as a specialization of the informatics field rather than as a basic medical science. However, there are good arguments as to why Medicine should be the first among equals to have its own informatics domain. Medical Informatics must have extensions to both academia and industry to survive. Medical informaticians, whether implicitly or explicitly, exist in three different environments: academic, clinical (user), and industrial (informatics developer); all three environments must be considered when trying to predict the future of this new multi-disciplinary area.
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